A price on your head – Odessa

Within this entry relating to the SBU rolling up terrorist entities in Odessa a few days ago, lies these paragraphs:

“Rumour from within the SBU mill, is that amongst those of this organisation arrested, were two individuals that had been designated as assassins. Indeed there is/was a “hit list” of 4 names of public figures for “liquidation”, with $150,000 as the fee for these political killings.

The four names upon the list, however, at the time of writing have not been stated officially or even in unofficial passing. Undoubtedly, however, they will make their way one way or another into the public realm over the coming days.”

In order to bring matters somewhat to a close in this particular case, it seems necessary to disclose those that had a price on their head.

The first, unsurprisingly, is MP Alexie Goncharenko, the price being $90,000.  To be blunt, for him it is yet another in a long list of death threats over the years.  He is an ambitious, capable politician who has no problem with being “contentious” or “fractious” amongst his peers or the local community.  He is also, whatever his faults, visibly pro-Ukrainian and prepared to take risks others would not to be provocatively so.  He traveled to Crimea to raise a large flag of Ukraine after the illegal annexation of the peninsula, and to Moscow to march in the Nemtsov commemoration, getting arrested in the process.

Andrei Yusov, leader of the regional branch of UDAR was also on the list.  Yusov survived an attempt on his life last year.  Regarding being a name on the assassination list, he stated “I already know that my name is on the list.  I can say that the list is of good, quite decent people, and I’m honored to be among them.”  Also named is fellow party member Sergey Gutsalyuk, with a $30,000 pay out.

Lastly, “Council of Public Security” leader Mark Gordienko, again with a $30,000 price tag.  This is the third time he has been on such a list.  “In this news, for me, there is nothing new – it has become a routine.”

Meanwhile, the SBU appears to be continuing to “mop up”, having now caught up with former deputy of the city council, the former head of the “Regional Committee of Veterans of Afghanistan”, the creator and “Supreme Chieftain” of the “Ukrainian Orthodox Cossacks”, Alexander Lutsenko.